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Saturday, January 29, 2005

As a Disney Shareholder, I get the Annual Report every year and I'm always intrigued by the tidbits of information I find buried in the document. Here are the interesting things I found in the 2004 Annual Report:

Parks. Disney operates 5 of the Top 10 most popular family attractions in the U.S. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in California, they are rolling out a very aggressive set of new rides and a new park in 2005, including:

Disney Hong Kong, the massive new park built on reclaimed land and first park in China (opens September 12), including a planned Art Deco-style Hollywood Hotel

Raging Spirits, a new ride at Disney Tokyo

Sourin', a new ride at Epcot (copied from California Adventure)

Extreme Stunt Show, a new attraction at Disney-MGM Studios (copies from Disney Paris)

Chicken Little, the first digital release as they move to fill the digital cartoon hole in their slate with the ending of the Disney-Pixar agreement

Cars, the final Pixar film

The Pacifier (Vin Diesel, spring)

Sin City (Bruce Willis)

Cursed (Christina Ricci)

Casanova (Heath Ledger, Christmas)

Sky High (Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, summer)

Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (May)

Flight Plan (Jodie Foster)

Ice Princess (Michelle Trachtenberg, March)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (all seven Chronicles of Narnia books in one film, Christmas)

Herbie Fully Loaded (Lindsay Lohan, summer)

TV, Video, and Games. Trying to follow up on the popularity of Lost and Desperate Housewives:

Muppets' Wonderful Wizard of Oz TV movie (spring)

Bambi, The Incredibles, National Treasure, King Arthur, The Village and Mulan 2 to be released on DVD

Video game titles based on the films The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicken Little, Tron 2.0, and Chronicles of Narnia.

22nd Disney Channel premiered in Japan and Disney Channel India on the way

ESPN and ESPN2 will be broadcasting at least 6,000 hours of programming in HD

JETIX, a new boys-oriented TV channel

Other. Disney bought Baby Einstein (toys, clothing) and the entire Muppets empire in 2004 and will roll out related movies and merchandise; the Disney Cruise Ship Magic will be moving to the West Coast for 12 weeks of cruises before returning to the East Coast; Peter and the Starcatchers, DisneyFairies, and more Disney Princess merchandise will be released; and a stage version of Mary Poppins premiered in London.